Official site: http://www.abeautifulmind.com

Film name: A beautiful mind

Year: 2001

Country: United States

Filming Locations:

New York, New York, USA

Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Bayonne, New Jersey, USA

Director: Ron Howard

Language: English

Accent: American English

Written by Sylvia Nasar

Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman

Cast:

• Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash, Jr.. A mathematical genius who is obsessed with finding an original idea to ensure his legacy. There was difficulty when casting Crowe, who was well-liked by the producers, when he went to film Gladiator in a different time-zone and was difficult to reach for an extended period of time to attach him to the project.

• Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash. A later student of Nash who catches his interest. Connelly was cast after Ron Howard drew comparisons to her and Alicia Nash, both academically and in facial features.

• Paul Bettany as Charles Herman. Nash's cheerful, supportive roommate and best friend throughout graduate college. The character of Charles was not written to be British; however, director Brian Helgeland provided a tape of Bettany from A Knight's Tale. The filmmakers agreed that the character could be British, based on Bettany's performance in the film.
  

• Ed Harris as William Parcher. A highly dedicated and forceful government agent for the Department of Defense. He recruits Nash to help fight Soviet spies.
  

• Josh Lucas as Martin Hansen. Nash's friendly rival from his graduate school years at Princeton. In the end, Hansen tells Nash that nobody wins, and they are at that point to consider each other as equals.

• Adam Goldberg as Sol. A friend of Nash's from Princeton University who is chosen, along with Bender, to work with him at MIT.

• Anthony Rapp as Bender. A friend of Nash's from Princeton University who is chosen, along with Sol, to work with him at MIT.

• Vivien Cardone as Marcee. Charles' young niece.

• Christopher Plummer as Dr. Rosen. Nash's doctor at a psychiatric hospital.

• Judd Hirsch as Helinger. The head of the Princeton mathematics department.

Main characters:

1. John Forbes Nash, J

2. Alicia Nash

Plot: At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia. Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today.

Taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/plotsummary

Context:

The film starts on September 1947, in Princeton. In the University with the same name “Princeton University”.

John Nash was one of the two winners of the distinguished Carnegie scholarship to study chemical engineering in this University. Where John Nash were considered as the Genius from West Virginia, (the place where he came from) by his schoolmates.

Princeton University is a provare research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.

“Princeton's program in chemical engineering is part of a distinguished tradition of graduate education and scientific research at the University. Formal graduate study at Princeton was initiated in 1869 when three fellowships were established. In 1900, the Graduate School was formally chartered within the University, and 12 years later the first residential graduate college in America was dedicated” ((2008). Chemical engineering. Princeton University and the Department of Chemical. Taken from Engineering. http://www.princeton.edu/che/grad/).

The film ends in the same place where He served as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the later part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize In Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.

Powerful ideas and Values:

• Perseverance
• Love
• Passion for ideals
• Dreams
• Gratitude
• Friendship
• Recognition of achievements
• Humility (recognize errors and weaknesses)
• Empathy

Personal opinion:

It is a very good film, especially for the remarkable performance of Russell Crowe, who in his character, shows the magnificence of the human mind.

Despite of the fact that John Nash was so smart, he could not face his disease, being often overcome by it to the point of being part of an unreal world which almost causes him the loss of the most precious that he had his family.

I must mention that the plot of the film was interesting because it is a real story of one of the greatest mathematicians in the world, who with his ingenuity does significant contributions to the economy; as a result, he gets the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.

This important fact shows unbelievable that could be the love, because only with the hope of recovering his old life, he conquered the hearts of who initially made fun of him because of his misfortune. However, thanks to his perseverance, the support of his old schoolmates and his family, he could control his disease in order to become again in the genius that he was.

This is one of the most beautiful movies that I have ever seen.

It shows not only the creation of new things by the ingenuity, but also the creation of things that do not exist, because they are part of the imagination. The problem is when we do not know what is part of the imagination and what is part of the reality.